The recent crackdown on a cannabis store in Banff highlights the “blowback” from the public in “conservative Alberta” — despite more lenient police treatment in other parts of the country, according to a local pot advocate.

RCMP in Banff shut down the Canna Clinic in Bear Street Mall on Tuesday, less than a month after it opened, and arrested nine employees.

The store had a licence to sell pot paraphernalia, but according to nearby residents, it was also displaying and selling recreational marijuana.

Canna Clinic isn’t the first store in Canada to jump the gun and sell marijuana before it’s legalized. But RCMP Cpl. Curtis Peters said the case was the first storefront operation of non-medicinal marijuana sales he had heard of in Alberta since the federal government announced plans to legalize recreational sale and use this spring.

Keith Fagin, founder of local pro-cannabis group Calgary 420, spoke with the Calgary Eyeopener Friday about the future of marijuana sales in Canada. Here is an edited version of that conversation.